A by-the-numbers franchise upgrade
User Rating: 7 | Sid Meier's Civilization V PC
We've probably reached the point in this venerable franchise where, assuming a good faith development effort, it will be very hard to release a bad game but even harder to do something that is more than an incremental improvement on the last go-round. Civilization V is certainly not the former but it's also not much more than the latter. No doubt this franchise will remain a sturdy cash cow for many years to come and fans will eagerly await each iteration. Civilization X will be better than IX and XXXV will outdo XXXIV but the formula that was laid down in 1990 won't change. This is hardly a bad thing since this is one of the all-time-great turn-based strategy formulas but I'm reluctant to award deity status to incremental upgrades. Let's save the stratospheric scores for truly ground-breaking works of art or else just slap "lifetime achievement" 9.0 scores on all sequels to gaming classics that show decent professional skill at moving the plow in the right direction.
